Hey kids,
How are you? We have come a long way since the beginning of #GoChongi. Plenty has happened. At the moment I’m watching the first videos I made with the “I support a crazy idea” motto and I got inspired to write a couple of paragraphs.
I’m pretty confident the last 2 years were one of the best in my life. Only the teenage days can compete but those were different times – we did not have a single care in the world.
In life, there are moments when it seems like the world is smiling at you. Everything leads you in one direction and no matter how much time, energy and effort you put into something, you nail it with ease. This is how I felt during the last couple of years working on #GoChongi.
Life outside of professional sport had rocked me in no time. I felt a constant desire to spike up the adrenaline level and start racing again. That’s just what I do best. I’m good when I’m in a tough situation; when I have only one opportunity to show what I’m capable of; when there is no room for error. I get myself together and perform the best.
During the spring of 2016 I wrote down on a piece of paper all the activities I had been doing so far and the whole network of people and organizations I had built. When I connected the dots it was obvious that I had to do something related to sport. I had always wanted to race ski cross so I decided the time was “now or never”. The following night I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about how I could turn my new “crazy idea” into reality. When the sun came up I already had a rough plan about the Indiegogo campaign #GoChongi and I started work right away.
After devoting one year on discovering the world of ski cross (racing, drama, hospitals, podiums, disappointment, happiness etc.) and finding one of a king (for me) motivation I managed to accomplish the goal for the season.
I was so self-assured that I will succeed. There was not even a sign of doubt. I imagined myself racing the Olympic ski cross track everyday. I gave it all I had. You cannot imagine how crazy it gets sometimes when you are training and racing alone. When you work with a team or at least with a coach, there is a system in place. You get inside the current and just go with flow. You leave all the important decisions to someone else. When you are alone you have to create the current. And then you have to nurture it, keep it alive. No one will know if you skipped a training day. There is no one who will care if you drink an extra beer after dinner. It’s very easy to give up when you feel discomfort. In my case, that’s when I got motivated the most. Right at the pain threshold when I was under the most pressure. It was so much fun!
Even if Jesus himself gave me a call and tolled me “Chongi – you ain’t gonna make it bro!” I would have laughed in his face: “Jesus, you are crazy man!”
And in the end I failed. How was this possible?!
After so much visualization, meditation, working my ass off. I was rock solid! And I couldn’t make it? My motivation just adopted an entirely new physical state and shattered onto the floor. I swept it into a jar and left it under the bed until I figure a way out of the tough situation. It hurts a lot. It hurts a lot but you also learn a lot in those moments. My lesson was, that everything good in this life takes time. No matter how hard you press the issue, things just take a certain amount of time and there is now way around that. And in the end things happen just the way they should!
That’s why I will keep on racing professionally. That’s why I won’t quit!
In this hard moment the music saved me once again. During the last couple of years I barely played guitar. I was to concentrated on skiing and felt no urge. We only played two gigs per year just so we can keep the band alive.
To the contrary, the last two months I played everyday. The emotion was pouring out of me straight into a structured musical form. I wrote new songs, we recorded an album. The album is amazing, but that’s the topic of a different post.
I really enjoy talking about myself and whining so I’ll just get to the point.
I took out the jar from under the bed and began arranging the pieces of the puzzle. I’m going back into training regime. The competition never sleeps. People train non-stop and watching them do it on Instagram just makes me angry.
#theshowmustgoon!
This fall I’m launching a new campaign to support next season’s funding. It won’t be crowdfunding. I’m working on some ideas and we will see what comes out in the end. I can say for sure that it’s going to be entertaining. Whoever is familiar with my work knows that there are no limits to what my brain can come up with once I feel that the wind is blowing in the right direction.
In coclusion…
#GoChongi Vol.3 is coming soon! There will be emotion, there will be rocknroll! There will be ski cross!
Cheers everyone! I’m proud that I finally translated this website in my mother tongue. Check it out here if you are Bulgarian.
Peace,
Chongi